Niagara Falls

Everyone knows someone that has said come and visit!  Well we are lucky to have great friends who said come and visit and offered a room in their home as well as a car they had for us to drive.  We just needed to make our way to Buffalo NY.  Can't hardly pass that up for very long so off we went on a side trip to visit Ivy and Lloyd in Buffalo as well as see Niagara Falls!

Changed our tickets packed up and flew from St. Thomas to Miami to Charlotte to Buffalo.  Ivy and Lloyd live literally minutes from the Buffalo airport and were so kind to come over and pick us up. They were working some the next day so we headed out to see Niagara Falls and we decided to drive over into Canada for the fun of it.

*worth mentioning here don't drive friends car out of the country without a signed note from friend*

Leaving US fine, coming back a little difficult, whose car, where is she why does it have Tennessee plates, what's in the trunk (not sure as never looked, pls Ivy don't have anything bad in your trunk), put your phone down, turn car off and give me the keys...it's a push button car doesn't need a key but ok.  After a few more checks and questions we can come back into US YAY!!
If you get a chance the view from the Canada side is extremely beautiful and really opens up the whole falls try to get over there too ~ but make sure you have your passport and car title/owner info!

Niagara Falls is a sight to see!  

Incredible amount of water over the falls and beautiful views.  Really not expensive to visit and you can add extra excursions as you want.  We did the Maid of the Mist boat tour and highly recommend.

We parked in the main parking area for the US side Niagara Falls park Prospect Point and walked right down to the side of the falls.  Parking was $10.00 for the day.

The "we were here selfie"

As you walk down the walkway it opens up right to the top of the falls

We took it all in wandering down the pathway face timing family to share the experience and then headed down to catch the Maid of the Mist boat tour.
Truly an experience right there at water level it is incredible, the sound, the mist Wow!!

The view fron the Canada side is spectacular ~

If you get the chance make the trip!     

 Our friends have a boat on the river above the falls and when they got off work we headed out to the marina to have a sunset ride.  Leave it to Ivy to have the champagne and snacks ready to go.  What an amazing evening floating along with the mist of Niagara Falls in the distance, water a little cold for my taste but Lloyd jumped right in.

A view not everyone gets to see, the mist off the top of the Niagara Falls, this river feeds into the falls, the buoys show where you can't go past with boat.

We ended the night with late dinner in downtown Buffalo.  If we get back I want to check out downtown more ~ food, waterfront, seems there is a little bit of everything.  

Machu Picchu ~ part 1 the idea & the packing

We weren't sure where we wanted to go but knew it was going to be International.  Cierra had seen my moms scrapbook from her time in Peru with Amazon/Andes Expedition Explores Natural Health & Healing and from there the Peru/Machu Picchu idea came to light.

I am not big on tours, be there, be here and follow along.  More the wing it and see where we land kind of traveler.  That being said I do like to feel a little grounded and have some idea of what & where plus I don't want to miss something that is a "must see".   So a few months before our trip I started googling and reading blogs. Anything I could find on getting to and staying around Machu Picchu.  Mom sent her info she had saved, pamphlets and maps.  

Machu Picchu Peru is a truly majestic Inca ruins situated above the Sacred Valley and voted one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. When going be aware of the seasons ~ December, January, February, and March are the rainy seasons.  We went March 12 - 18 and saw signs of rain but were lucky and had perfect weather!  The currency is the Peruvian nuevo sol (PEN) and language is Spanish.

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We decided to have money exchanged prior and our local bank did it at no charge a week ahead.  We exchanged $450.00, at the time of our travel that equaled 1,420 PEN and I carried 2 credit cards.  Few things to note on our packing list...power converters - some blogs said it was the converter/adapter with pins and others said flat plug- I puchased 2 converters/adapters, one for each of us Insignia Travel adapter & converter & iConcepts World Wide travel adapter converter  we used the Pins in Ollantaytambo and the flat in Cuzco so you may need both adapters.  I purchased a cheap rain poncho at Walmart but never used it.  Was thankful we had purchased a Small backpack, this brand folds into itself so makes it so easy to travel with! A North Face light jacket as the evenings were little chilly and early am in Machu Picchu was cool.  Granola bars & snacks. Sunscreen (very important as even on cloudy days the elevation is higher and sunburning is fast & painful).  A blog we had read said use regular shampoo as bug lotion so we had little travel samples for "bug lotion" and regular insect wipes.  Our time wasn't bad for insects but I do believe it really depends on when you are there. Passport, credit cards and the bulk of our Sols I wanted to carry in a RFID protected money belt, I wasn't sure about this as never wore one but I had it on from Lima on and really forgot it was there as it is comfortable and didn't show. (After some thought and reading on the money belt I think next time I will use a "dummy" wallet instead as someone could grab your waist and feel the money belt). Comfortable hiking shoes and socks, extra camera batteries and extra sd cards. 

We kept luggage to a min. one small roller each and 1 messenger bag.  

Remember to tell your credit cards you are traveling and find out about your phone service, we have Verizon and could add International for the month.

* next blog post ~ Machu Picchu part 2 the adventure begins...

St Thomas Run

St. Thomas USVI & Moms

First thing we see is they are changing up the airport a little.  I can remember flying in here and you walked through a boarded walkway with wire on the top to meet your party at the end.  It really felt like you had gone to a remote island.  No jetbridges yet so you still walk down the steps out of the plane and the rum shot stand still greets you as you enter the airport area so I guess not too modern yet! Met Mom ~ always so good to see her! then off to Bluebeards Castle to meet up with Captain Paul for lunch. This is also one of the few places according to mom that serves breakfast late into the day and I love that!! 

The view from the pool there is stunning~

Cierra & I must have been starving as we inhaled a full breakfast in moments!

Headed home for the evening and going to sail tomorrow.  Mom & Pauls place is on Bunker hill next to Blackbeards Castle.  They occasionally have rental units avail if you are looking for a specific time shoot me an email and I will find out if they have anything open.  Their place is great!  Comfy, convenient, pool and views!

The best place for morning coffee - moms place!

We all headed out on the Dancing Dolphin for a sail - I recommend this fun, sun & rum!  2 stops with great snorkeling, rays, turtles, fish and a shipwreck.

Feel blessed to spend time with Mom!  

Lunch on Water Island ~ what a great view ~

Sailing back into St. Thomas harbor and the views of Charlotte Amalie are beautiful ~ 

We spent our last day with Mom & Paul running a couple of errands, picking up more Critter Oil (it helps keep off the mosquitoes that are causing Chikungunya, I brought some home) checking on their Sail Marilee and of all things a fish spa!!  

What a great visit.  Always too short but am so glad I get to see them more often now!  Already planning the next St. Thomas run!

2015 kick off

Kicking off the 2015 with a new blog and travels!

Cierra was out for winter break and I ended up with the first week of Jan as vacation so we decided to take off~
Planned a trip to visit my mom in St. Thomas, but decided to make a side trip first to New York!! We have never seen the Rockefeller tree, gone to the top of the Rock or seen the city all lit up.  Phoenix to JFK was to be our first flight.  We flew in Jan 3 and were set to fly out JFK to St. Thomas 8am Jan 4 so not much time but what the heck.

**Now here is lessons learned while traveling~  JFK has a 24 hr bag check in terminal 4 down by baggage claim, for min. cost they will keep them for you so you aren't carrying everything around the city.  Love that!  (Admirals club and other terminals bag checks are open only certain hrs)
Terminal 4 also has a cab line that seems to move pretty fast - but according to local friends met on the flight ask the cab driver ahead of time how much...should be around $50 or so.

Since we were limited on time we opted for the cab this time around and made our way to Rockefeller Center.  Total for us was $60.
Stepping out of the cab at night in the middle of Rockefeller Center during the holidays is magical. Rainy & cold, but once you become immersed you don't even notice!

We were taking pictures and wandering - Total Tourists!  

Made our way over to Rockefeller Center to go to "the top of the rock"  so determined that when they said visibility was limited we didn't care....visibility wasn't just limited they were being nice, visibility was none!  We were lucky to see the observation deck floor feet from the door.  We bought tickets ahead of the time here Top of The Rock tic sales

                                                                      

             

Good thing about being on the top of the rock during no visibility is there are no crowds and nobody walking through your pictures!!  One other person was there the whole time we were!  Thanks for taking our photo Mr. fellow die hard tourist!

Made our way back down and ran into a one of New York's finest who said yes when Cierra asked him to take our picture we couldn't leave without a picture with him ~  

                             

Such fun working our way around Rockefeller Center

Decided to head over to Times Square as it is only a short walk 

Thank you Starbucks for the hot chocolate to keep us warm!

About 1am we called it a night and walked into the Marriott Time Square parking area to see about a cab.  Thank you for finding us a black towncar for the same price as a cab to comfortably get us back to JFK. $60 back to JFK.

We picked up our backpacks and since we couldn't get through security until 3:30-4:00am found a "quiet corner"  to lounge in.  

**Next lesson learned - when you stop moving around and early am hrs set in it is cold in an airport. The warmest place is standing next to the air dryer in the restroom.  

Cierra fell asleep and even though this picture looks like I have been traveling way more than 1 day I feel the need to post to show friends & family that yes if I can do it you can do it ~ overnight in the airport is doable!  Entertaining myself learning to work my new selfie pole Craig bought me for Christmas (like this selfie pole)

End of our New York adventure as we head through security to catch our St. Thomas flight we look back and see this ~

Good Bye New York it has been GREAT!